Thursday, February 19, 2009

Details of the state of U.S. industrial production was released yesterday and it wasn't pretty. Bloomberg reports:

U.S. industrial production fell in January for the sixth time in seven months and more than forecast as companies reduced manufacturing amid a worldwide slowdown in demand.

Output at factories, mines and utilities dropped 1.8 percent, after a revised decrease of 2.4 percent in December that was more than previously reported, the Federal Reserve said today in Washington. Car and truck assemblies fell to a record.

More bothersome to me were the figures detailing capacity utilization as compared to recessions and peaks of the past 20 or so years, as well as average over the 1972-2008 time frame (unfortunately they didn't include figures for recessions of the 1970's or 1980's).